The Marco Kracht Company and the Flagging Knives
History and development:
The Marco Kracht Company started the production of the flagging knives under the name Morassi Alfeo (a cousin of the grandmother of the actual owner) during the sixties and since them it supplied the knives both to the major companies producing the machines (Dal Maschio, Osmas 3, Mass, Borghi, Giori Bernardo) and to very few large Italian companies producing brooms (I.P.P.A.).
For these reasons Mr. Marco Kracht could proudly say that his company is probably the only one that has an almost fifty years story and experience in the production of flagging knives.
At a first look the flagging knife seem like a product easy to produce, but, it is not so, because, it has to combine the properties of a kitchen-sport-hunting knife that mainly is the flexibility (when the blade bend has not to brake) to the properties of an industrial blade that mainly is to keep the edge, a kitchen-sport-hunting knife could be easily re sharpened also in the field, an industrial blade not.
For achieving this goal the Marco Kracht company is using a special carbon steel and a special heath treatment that is giving to the knife an hardness of HRC 56 + 2 points and the possibility of bending 50-60 degrees without breaking, something that is a must on the machines that are flagging the bundles of filament and that practically all the knives of the competitors are not able to achieve.
During the last years with the introduction of the P.E.T. filaments in the brooms productions the flagging knives are facing a completely new situation, in fact, the P.E.T. is an harder filament than the ones used before and since it is mainly made with recycled material the quality and the mechanical properties are varying a lot both between producers and lots of the same producers, so the edge of the flagging knives is lasting a lot less than before.
After making few tests increasing the hardness of the knives without truly solving the problem, the Marco Kracht company is now testing a new profile for the point of the knives and a new surface treatment.
Hopefully this tests would be ready for the Interbrush 2016.
Products:
Actually the main products of the company are the following:
- Flagging knives that are usually ready in stock
- The needles for sewing corn brooms that frequently are ready in stock
- Blades for the trimming heads of the machines
- Blades and vices for cutting the metal pipe of the broom handles
For these products is also available a re-sharpening service.
With a cooperation with other companies are also available drills for the brushmaking and the plastic spacers that are holding the flagging knives.
